


Armloads Invades

by Caramellody



Series: Cryptic Hunting For the Soul [3]
Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, more supernatural shenanigains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2020-07-10 09:13:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19903327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caramellody/pseuds/Caramellody
Summary: Life moves on, and Max continues to dream of being a monster hunter that he can be proud of, but some things might just come back to haunt him in the end.





	1. Snapping Branches

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, the writing might not be as bad for an M rating but, just to be sure, since it does get a tad bit more graphic than normal (which for the most part I might as well make this series M rated from now on)
> 
> Also wow, another two-parter I...really like breaking things into two parts for that tension huh?  
> This one was one I've had planned for a while so I'm glad I've got this done!
> 
> -These stories are all connected, things and events that occur to certain characters are either references from the show itself or from a prior part of this AU. that's not to say this story cant be enjoyed on its own, it will just make it easier if you read the prior chapters.-

Max couldn't understand, he knows monsters are violent. he’s seen them before in his many times on the job. and sure he was careless that one time in the woods but aside from that time, Max had never encountered one nonviolent monster.

It had been a good week and a half after the two back to back incidents with the very violent shapeshifter and the not so violent Mothman, and yet Max was still confused. he turned to look at all the pages of the monster book he got from his parents, it had been the only thing he had aside from Mr.Honeynuts as a form of familiar keepsake.and he wants to be sure it stays that way.

He would rather die than admit it, but the camp had slowly become his home in a way, his parents had signed him up to camp as a last-ditch effort to continue their hunts without him being a nuisance, which was fair. Max was a little shit thinking he could do hunts on his own, look where that got him. A bloody wound on the arm and a torn sweater that had to be thrown away before leaving. Granted, his parents never _technically_ dumped him. he ran away of his own accord before they could do that, and with nothing but directions, Max made his way to the bus stop where Quartermaster would take the kids to Camp Campbell.

Max sighed, he knew he was right, he’s had the experience before. No monster can be that nice. _It was only a matter of time_.

The next morning, Max did the usual, things managed to get back to normal after the Mothman incident, David finally stopped asking questions and Nikki finally stopped talking about it. If only the rest of the summer can end this way, he would be fine. As he messed with David’s phone however, his eye caught a glimpse of Space Kid, being an idiot as always, zoom through talking about some full moon coming soon. Max rolled his eyes, it wasn't a big deal, wolves hardly made it this far in the forest, much less the camp, it was too mountainous. So he had nothing to fear.

_Boy was he wrong._

* * *

Daily activities persisted throughout the day and past lunch, but Max was intent in reading the monster book, he needed to know every monster and he was determined to, he was going to be a monster hunter of his own accord whether it was right or not.

Flipping through the pages gave Max time to really think about the monsters as a collective. He knew the basics: the idea that they all came from some weird mind palace, most of them were non-violent, and more distinctly, there is a difference between a pureblooded monster and a turned monster, a section Max noticed there wasn't much info on. which would initially seem a little bit counter-intuitive, but after much thought, it made sense, if pureblooded monsters were hard to find. Turned ones were almost near impossible if you weren't deliberately trying to find them. Most of the turned monsters either die, or wind up severely wounded and even if they DO follow all of the steps to a tee, it’s never certain they become one, which ultimately makes people deliberately trying to become monsters either really fucking brave, or really fucking stupid. Or both.

but that brought a whole other can of worms for the ten-year-old, what about the weird Mothman? what about Jasper? Jasper specifically was hard to really pin down, he wasn't a pureblood ghost, not with the testimonies they've gathered about him, but would Max really consider Jasper a monster? Dead as shit? Totally, but at least by association, it would probably seem that way...

His train of thought was however cut quickly by Nikki and Neil making their way to Max, Nikki with various shovels and Neil with blueprints all around him. Max looked up at the two and lifted a brow.

"The hell are you two doing?" he said, looking up for the first time in hours. Max suddenly realized the sun was starting to come down. orange rays shone brightly across lake Lilac.

Neil looked at Max as one blueprint dropped to the ground, "Well, I have a ton of blueprints for various things we could make. sure full-on engineering may not be my forte, but science is science and if that means I have to figure out how to make a grenade launcher with scraps then so be it." Neil continued to speak mentioning a lot about chemically activated gumballs that would fizz and blow up when exposed to oxygen and saliva as well as infusing weapons on things that were normally not weapons. Max looked at Nikki, "What about you?" he asked.

Nikki dropped all the tools on her, "Well, I've been on the search for meat, cause monsters looove meat!" she smiled as she pointed to the forest, "Met up with good ol’ moth friend today during lunch and he seemed happy with the PBnJ I gave him." Nikki chuckled as Neil and Max both gave double takes to each other before looking back at Nikki.

"Nikki!" Neil said, "YOU went back to the forest!? Are you fucking insane!?"

Nikki rolled her eyes, "He's fine! I told him I’d call him Jefferson and he seemed really okay with that name."

Max’s eyes blinked slowly as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, "She fucking named it. We're royally screwed now."

Neil’s eyes grew wider, "WHY WOULD YOU NAME THEM?!"

Nikki shrugged, "He was fine with the name! I wouldn't keep calling him Jefferson if he didn’t consent."

Neil tried to make a rebuttal, but all that came out was stuttering and rolls of blueprints falling down before all he could do was sigh.

"Okay then, I guess his name is fucking _Jefferson_ now huh?"

Max sighed, "Whatever..." He then got up and began to walk to the tents, "I’ll be right back...I probably won’t take too long, I’m only going to take this book back to the tent."

Neil nodded, "Okay then but after you better come back or else we'll call D-"

"-Don't even fucking finish that sentence Neil," Max said raising and waving his hand in the air. "It’s only going to take 5 or 6 minutes.

* * *

Max did not return in 5 or 6 minutes.

It had been a whole _two hours_ and Max was nowhere in sight. By this point, the counselors had taken them to their beds, to which Neil ultimately told David that Max had gone to bed early that night. But when Neil went inside his tent, there was no Max to be seen. the only thing that did remain, however, was the book he was holding earlier that day. it was wide open to a page regarding. Upon closer inspection, he saw a page that was somewhat different from the ones he’s seen before, it had messy writing all over it, some in symbols Neil couldn’t even understand the contents inside it:

**_“Werewolves [HIGHLY DANGEROUS PUREBLOOD AND TURNED]”_ **

A chill very quickly went down his spine. Without so much as a second thought, Neil sprinted out the tent. He needed to get someone, if he knew Max and his fascination towards these, he might just be trying to fight one himself which is already raising all kinds of red flags. Neil kept running as fast as he possibly could as he saw David making his way back to the cabin. Neil was breathing heavily, he wasn't used to running and especially not used to running in such a dire emergency, but if the book was any premonition it meant Max wound himself up to yet another solo mission.

"DAVID!" Neil yelled once he was out of range of the tents, "THIS-THIS IS BAD!" Neil stopped to pull out his inhaler to take a puff to refresh himself before looking back at the counselor who at this point had turned around and jogged his way to Neil. 

"What's wrong?" David asked, as cheery as ever.

"Max! He's not in his tent! AGAIN! I think this might be the shapeshifter situation all over again." David’s eyes grew wide for a second before becoming almost abnormally serious, "Neil, you stay here, I’m going to get Gwen."

"I can go get Ni-"

"Neil, we can't have any more campers wandering around the middle of the forest in the middle of the night. It's just too dangerous."

"But David, she knows the forest area around Jefferson’s cave from memory, she can help us around that area and maybe he can help us locate Max’s whereabouts.”

"Jefferson?"

"Nikki named the Mothman, it's a long story." Without letting David even try to object he dashed his way out and ran back to the tents. Having time of the essence, David rushed back to the counselor’s cabin, but as he did, he noticed Gwen was sound asleep. His eyes glanced at a hockey stick, a second one that she had taken from the storage room. he grabbed the stick and looked at Gwen, his eyes looking down on the ground. his mouth, mouthing the inaudible words of 'im sorry' to the counselor before running back outside.

When David came back, Neil and Nikki were waiting for him. Nikki was equipped with two plastic shovels, one on each hand. Neil, on the other hand, had a book David had seen Max with all the time. Neil turned the book over to show a full-page description as well as an image of the werewolf and other types such as the dire wolves, violent, mindless, majority pureblood. Neil looked back at the tents "If we go from the direction Max had gone. maybe we might find him quickly." David nodded before leading the way, with Neil on his side trying to point out things of note about dire wolves whereas Nikki stood by the other side noting anything different going on with the path ahead. at one point, Nikki rushed slightly ahead and stopped, she began to sniff the ground before looking to the right and noticing one of Max's shoes on the ground.

"A clue!"

"k\Kids... I have a bad feeling about this."

"Like What?” Neil said, turning around, “Like someone's watching us?"

David nodded slightly, "Yeah..."

Just then, a massive rustling of leaves rustled loudly as a shadowy figure was thrown across, passing through Neil, Nikki, and David and hitting the trunk of the nearest tree. upon further inspection, David realized the figure wasn't moving and quickly rushed to its aid. the first thing he noticed right away was the familiar blue sweater, to which it only made David even more nervous.

"Max?!" he exclaimed rushing faster than ever to the boy. he tried to shake the child but the sudden movement suddenly caught off guard once more. he noticed Max's head slowly lift up only to notice that his entire head was covered in jet black fur, that ears poked from above his head and that a canine-like face stared back at David with the all too familiar blue-green eyes staring directly at him. and for a moment, David swore he saw fear coming from the young wolf, a familiar fear that seemed too out there for someone who seemed to be Max to have. The wolf-like barked slightly before getting up weakly and limping his way back.

Now in a normal scenario, David would have just picked the dog up. but, he just stood there, he didn't know what to do. what _could he even do_? David reached out his hand to the small wolf that slowly limped his way to the tree.

"Max, is...that you?"

The creature stopped, turned around as it gave what David could imagine was the equivalent of an eye roll before limping back to David and putting a paw on his hand.

The moment was quickly cut off by Neils's piercing scream.

"DAVID?! I THINK ITS COMING BACK!" he yelled, Nikki crouching down, her eyes full of eagerness.

"Aww yes! Monster time!" 

Instinctively, David tried to pick the sweater-wearing wolf up, struggled at the weight of the small creature before putting him down and running towards the other two kids, hockey stick in hand

"You two get out, this is getting too dangerous for you kids."

Nikki sighed, "Aww, but David-"

" _NOW!_ "

Neil and Nikki hopped back at David’s raise in his voice, any trace of optimism or happiness was gone as his eyes shot daggers at the two campers. Neil nodded violently as he held Nikki's arm, "Y-Yeah, o-of course. come on Nikki, let's go back."

"But-"

Neil tugged her arm, "Nikki..."

Nikki sighed, "Fiiine."

The two began to walk away, Nikki petting the wolf as she came by him. all Max did was shake his head and threateningly snarl at her, something Nikki took with a chuckle.

David kept his position but he noticed Max limped his way behind the nearest tree in order to take cover. a moment of silence filled the woods, stillness rising from the darkness of the sky as David suddenly heard a chuckle from behind the trees.

"I told you all monsters were assholes."

Returning back to David limping once again but this time as his all too familiar human self. David stayed silent as he saw Max hold onto his arm tightly.

"Max, what happened? Did- what did you do?"

Max limped back, "I did nothing, that thing did _something_ and if we don't stop it it’s going to attack the camp."

David broke his position to crouch down to Max's size, "Max you've said that before with the Mothman and they turned out to be a very nice fellow."

Max groaned as he glared at David, "I don't fucking mean Jefferson, you idiot! there's something...worse."

"Max, are you trying to deflect the situation so I don't ask how you managed to turn into a wolf?"

Max's shoulders slumped, he let a slight curse at the action of it before shaking his head violently and looking at the camp counselor, "No! But if you do ask that you're going to get..." Max stayed silent as his face went pale and almost on a split second, he noticed fur growing back again as Max quickly turned back into a wolf and walked behind slowly. there wasn't much light, to begin with anyway, but David very quickly noticed something from behind, a massive shadow grew twice Davids size emerging from over his head and spread last Max. turning around slowly, David quickly discovered the creature in question.

It was a wolf, a dire wolf if David had ever seen one before. And it was _massive_. it had thick fur and was almost three times David's size. The thing was massive. And it was clearly looking at his direction.

David held his arms out, covering Max behind him. Max, who seemed to be stuck in a hybrid of human and wolf, glared at the camp counselor however and slapped his hand before stepping in front of David.

"This fucker wants me! This has nothing to do with you!" He turned to look up at David, "Run, now!"

The last thing Max expected from David would be an _angered_ response. Yet as he told him to leave, he noticed David’s eyes furrowed as he grabbed Max by the waist. Max started to wriggle his way out, throwing him off guard by the sudden strength the child had. Max looked back at the wolf before looking back at David.

"David, I'm serious, just go!"

"I'm not going to do that Max. I won’t leave you."

Max rolled his eyes as he growled in protest, "I don't fucking _CARE_ what you don’t want to do, this thing wants me and me only and I can deal with th-"

Max was very quickly cut off as a paw swiped him and pushed him across the forest, hitting him on the head and knocking him to the ground. David looked back at the child, his eyes paralyzed with fear.

"MAX!"

Without a second thought, David ran straight towards the child, ignoring the massive wolf behind him. He held Max with his left arm, noticing how he was stuck in a form between human and wolf, ears sticking out on top and fur slightly more prominent on his arms and hands. he looked at the wolf with an unnatural fire in his eyes as he swung the hockey stick from his right hand and whacked the monster on the nose. The wolf was clearly thrown off guard by this and winced back slightly before looking back at the counselor with a look of rage. lifting his paw up once more, the wolf swung down, aiming at Max. Something which David quickly noticed as he lowered Max and used his left side to cover the unconscious child. 

And at that moment, David felt the claws penetrating skin as his face quickly began to feel an aching pain followed by something wet covering him. Using his free hand he rubbed his arm on the pained area and took it back, the arm being drenched in blood. David stood, looking at the smeared blood over his arm that he was too slow to react to Max’s screams as he saw the wolf's massive jaw open and subsequently close right on his blood-stained right arm.

For a moment David didn't scream. the pain coursed through his bloodstream, piercing every part of his body. He held onto Max tightly with his left, making sure he was safe no matter what. David’s eyes refused to look away. blood poured out, landing on the ground, on the wolf, and on himself as he heard the sound of what he could only hope were tree branches snapping in half only to realize that he was slowly losing consciousness before collapsing and falling on the ground, the branch snapping off completely with a loud crunch in his head.

The last thing he heard was the sound of a firearm boom in his direction as he saw a familiar pair of long brown boots stand right in front of him.


	2. Brand New Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the darkness of the night, a glimmer of optimism rises from the sky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dusjfsdhj there's a common trend in terms of me writing camp camp fanfiction and its that I have to finish it before the summer ends or else it's gonna be a whole year before any of my fics update.
> 
> And usually my CC motivation is tied to a new season, so the lack of a season due to everything going on definitely threw my clock a little. BUT i wanted to at least get this one done and have this series be a complete bundle all over again before i even think of starting with a new cc fic

Nikki and Neil both looked at Gwen coming out from the forest, her eyes were blank and her overall body movement was limp. She didn't even acknowledge the other two campers that are still away as she passed by them carrying Max, who was from what Nikki could notice slightly fluffier than normal. Gwen started the car up before leaving the car once more and going back into the forest. The way she walked was much stiffer, almost as if she was speed walking as she disappeared into the forest darkness. When she returned once again, she came back with an unconscious David who looked significantly worse for wear, his face was scratched up and his hair was a mess. but what caught their attention was the lack of his neckerchief and jacket that David normally wore. instead, they noticed the jacket was over his right arm, the yellow band used as a tying band for the jacket, which was absolutely drenched in blood. the two of them rushed up to Gwen, who they suddenly realized had a shotgun strapped to her back

Neil looked at the car and back to David, "What the  _ fuck  _ happened?"

"No clue." she said bluntly, "And at this rate, I don't fucking care. What matters now is to bring these two to the hospital before they die." she said, there was absolutely no shred of feelings or frustration. It was clear she wasn't mad at them, and in all honesty, she wasn't. "You two go back to your tents and go to bed, and I hope I don't need to tell you this again later." she swung open the door and placed David in the back before closing it shut. "I'll keep you up to date so, Neil " she quickly went into Max’s pocket, pulled David's phone and threw it to Neil, "I’ll call you when I get the chance." and with one last worrying look at the camp ahead, she entered the car and drove off

* * *

Neil wakes up the next morning to the sounds to campers running up and all around the camp. Groaning, he gets up and leaves the tent to see Cameron Campbell and the quartermaster trying to wrangle up all the kids again. Neil made his way to Campbell, putting David’s phone in his pocket.

"What the hell is going on here?"

The man rolled his eyes, "You tell me! Davey and that Glynn were nowhere to be seen. and now I have to be stuck on counselor duty."

Neil looked side to side before looking back at Campbell, "But, isn't that why you're here."

Campbell’s eyes squint, "That's what you think buckeroo."

Neil sighed before looking back at quartermaster, "Quartermaster you have an idea where they are right?"

Quartermaster blinked, "I have no idea about their whereabouts, but Gwen did indeed call to say she had taken David and Max away. that's all I know."

Neil rubbed the back of his neck as he felt a vibration in his pocket, quickly, he ran to the stalls to pull out the phone and see Gwen’s name pop up from the screen, he quickly answered and put the phone over his ear.

"Gwen, what the fuck is going on?"

"Neil It's worse than I thought."

"What? you never even told us anything you just brought Max and a bloodied David and told us to go to sleep-"

"David was attacked by a dire wolf."

"Wait, what? But he was just fine when Nikki and I ran off!"

Neil heard Gwen sigh before continuing, "Well, Max woke up in the middle of the ride to the hospital last night and explained what had happened after he told you guys to leave, that David ran into Max who was being chased by a dire wolf, a creature that had apparently, from what Max told me, been on Max's trail for months now. the thing knocked him out and David got reckless and got scratched and bit by it. it only ran off once I shot the motherfucker with QM's shotgun."

by this point Neil had sat down in the ground, his body leaning on the wooden flagpole, "But David never woke you up? How did you know David was there?"

"Because you were all screaming nearby and wouldn't let me go to sleep, so I immediately assumed it was a monster."

"Oh."

"I'm already going to have a scolding of my own to the man. That bastard is too soft-hearted for his own good and look what that’s got him, a fucked up scar and a missing arm."

"missing arm?"

"I'll explain later, but long story short the wolf bit his arm up to the joint and tore it clean off."

"Holy shit."

"Yeah..."Gwen paused, "Look, if any chaos happens in camp you're in charge, I Already told quartermaster so he knows, David's fine, Max is fine and at this point, that's what matters the most for now."

Neil got up, "right. How long are you going to be put through, the camps already pretty rowdy with you guys but with Campbell, it’s going to turn into chaos at any minute."

"David should be free to go by tonight. he's going to stay in the hospital while I take Max back." another pause, "And I know you kids are smart but I just need to repeat again, don’t do any funny business today, I’m not fucking ready to deal with that shit, especially not after this."

Neil quickly side-eyed, "Nikki and I could promise you that, can’t say about the other campers though, but we can diffuse the situation if that's what you need. on one condition."

Gwen groaned, "What?"

"Bring any metal scraps. Aluminum, old metal stuff, whatever. I've had an idea the past few days of a few gadgets we could make to make monster-hunting easier..."

"that’s it? get metal scraps."

"I don't care where you get them, " Neil said, looking back at the campers who Nikki at this point is currently on top of Campbell, yelling something about preparing for a camp revolution. “Oh shit the campers are starting a war."

"You stop that war and ill add in Capri moons to the mix."

"Deal."

* * *

When Gwen arrived with Max, he was cursing up a storm, grabbing onto anything to stay in the car.

"NO! I'M NOT STAYING I'M GOING WITH YOU!"

"Calm down you little shit, you need to calm down and be patient, I’m going back for him right away."

"I AM calm!"

Gwen gave one last tug, finally freeing Max, at the cost of breaking the grip. a willing sacrifice she thought as she quickly slammed the door shut and lowered Max to the ground. 

"You need to stay here. got it? I’m not gonna be gone for long, I'm only going back for David you need to relax okay?"

Max stayed silent. Gwen sighed as she got up and went back to the car, driving away once again and leaving Max alone at the entrance to camp Campbell.

And he stayed there.

He wasn't going to move

Not. An. Inch.

And he did stay there, Max kicked the ground with the only shoe he still had on him. he didn't want to be a werewolf, he never asked for this. They should've known better than to leave him alone as 'practice' they should've known.

Hours went by and the sun finally began to come down once again as the car drove by once more. Gwen coming out from one side and rushing to help David out from the other. he had a bandage on his face and a wrap all-around his right arm, or lack thereof one.

"Gwen...I’m fine."

"Are you? Are you really?"

David staid silent before looking back up at Gwen, "...yes."

Gwen gave David a death glare, David sighed, Lowering his head before looking back up.

"Okay, fine, I’m not doing so hot right now, even though I can't hide from that. but I can handle making my way on my own!" David suddenly noticed Max on the side of the entrance. "Max?"

Max blinked before rushing to the other two counselors and giving a half-hearted kick to David’s shoe.

"You fucking IDIOT why would you do that?" Max’s glance remained focused on the ground, refusing to make eye contact with the man. David sighed.

"You were in trouble, did you really think I wasn't going to intervene?"

Max stayed silent as Gwen looked at the entrance to the camp.

"How long have you been standing here?"

"Ever since you left."

Gwen’s shoulders slumped, "Jesus christ kid..."

David kneeled down to look Max straight in the eyes, it was dark so he couldn't really get a good glimpse of his face, but he could tell something was bothering the kid.

"Max, I’m fine, things turned out fine in the end."

Max glared at the counselor. his eyes shining dimly by the car lights.

"You asshat, you lost your arm, you won’t be able to play anymore."

David looked at his bandaged arm, "I guess you're right there...but it's not the end of the world." there was a slight strain in his voice as his eyes seemed to have dimmed at the mention of being unable to play music, and Max wasn't buying any of it, but he was in no mood to dig the knife even further, especially knowing Gwen would stop him if he even tried.

So Max instead just sighed and began making his way back waving his hand back and forth.

"Get sleep nerds, I’m going to do the same thing."

Gwen blinked, thrown aback, "Oh...uh, thanks?"

Max sighed, "Yeah, sure, whatever. Let’s just hope this doesn't come back to bite you in the ass."

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Max being a werewolf was something I wanted to have from the start of this AU, especially with this paradox he has to go through as a so-called 'monster hunter'. I probably made it either too obvious or not obvious enough but I'm glad you guys read through it regardless.
> 
> thought, some of my favorite titles I make always end up being anagrams...


End file.
